The present disclosure relates to a leg for a dock where a length of the leg can be manipulated and retained at a selected length. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a leg for a dock where the length is manipulated through rotation of a threaded member and wherein the leg includes one or more anti-rotation mechanisms to retain the leg at the selected length.
A typical adjustable dock leg includes an upper portion and a lower portion where one portion telescopes within the other portion. In some dock legs, one portion is moved relative to the other portion with manual force until apertures align in the two portions, which allow a bolt or a pin to be inserted therethrough to retain the two portions at the selected length. However, increasing the length of the leg may be difficult due to the weight of the dock and attempting to increase or decrease the length of the leg an excessive amount may cause binding between the two portions.
Other configurations of adjustable dock legs include an upper portion with a rotatable threaded rod that engages a fixed member with a threaded bore in a lower portion. Rotation of the threaded rod about an axis of rotation causes the upper portion to move relative to the lower portion, and thereby adjust a length of the leg. Advantageously, the rod may be rotated with a hand tool that provides mechanical advantage or a power tool, such as an electric or battery-operated tool to allow the length of the leg to be easily adjusted. In alternative configurations, a nut is rotatably secured to the upper portion and the rod is fixedly secured to the bottom portion where rotation of the nut adjusts a length of the leg.
However, various forces on the dock legs including, but not limited to, waves, wind, the weight of the dock and combinations thereof can cause unwanted rotation of the threaded rod relative to the fixed member, and therefore reduce the length of one or more legs of the dock. A result of the unwanted rotation of the threaded rod relative to the fixed nut is the unwanted lowering of the dock or the deck of the dock becoming unlevel.